Stories for May 14, 2009

Baja California's Attorney General says four Chula Vista residents killed in Tijuana last Saturday were not tourists looking for a good time south of the border. The Attorney General strongly suspects the group had drug ties.

Cutting across the Zambezi River, bridging the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe, Victoria Falls is the largest waterfall in the world. This awesome force of nature divides two natural worlds — the tranquil meandering river above the cascade and the raging abyss of the gorge below. The upper river is idyllic, running shallow through sandstone hills and meandering around islands and reed-beds where elephants, lions, hippos, crocodiles, buffalo, zebra, antelope and otters thrive. It is a place of epic proportions, with an epic story to tell.

Governor Schwarzenegger rolled out two grim scenarios for California today. He's proposing billions in cuts to schools, laying off 5,000 state workers and borrowing money from cash-strapped local governments.

SAN DIEGO -- Vice President Joe Biden appeared at Naval Air Station North Island today to speak to the sailors of the USS Ronald Reagan. The Vice President took the opportunity to voice the administration’s support for the sailors. He said he and President Barack Obama are working to improve the quality of life for service members and their families.

Few Californians who had their health insurance illegally cancelled have taken advantage of a state settlement designed to help them. A report in the Los Angeles Daily Journal finds only about five percent of people who wanted to take part in the settlement have done so.

Reading Cinemas will be the first mainstream local theater to serve alcohol with your movie -- provided you're over 21, hence the name of their new Saturday night program, Cinema 21. The drinks only flow on Saturdays so at least one night a week you can toast your favorite movies. I guess this arrives just in time to watch The Hangover.

Cornelia Wallace was a former beauty queen who became the second wife of segregationist governor George Wallace. The Old Globe's new play Cornelia tells the story of their marriage and was written by Mark Olsen, the creator and writer of the HBO hit series Big Love about a polygamous family in Utah.

Academy Award-winning actress Eva Marie Saint, star of North by Northwest and On the Waterfront, performs the work of Willa Cather in the play On the Divide at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts. Saint is joined on stage by her producer/director/husband Jeffrey Hayden who interpreted the works of the great pioneer novelist.

San Diego, Los Angeles and Ventura counties will become the first in California to begin checking the immigration status of all inmates booked into jail as part of a national effort to identify and deport more illegal immigrants with criminal records, it was reported today.

As a book, Angels and Demons was the prequel to The Da Vinci Code. But as a film, Angels and Demons (opening May 15 throughout San Diego) turns out to be a sequel. Tom Hanks returns as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon to unravel another mystery.

Governor Schwarzenegger is expected to roll out his plans to plug a multi-billion-dollar hole in the state budget Thursday. The governor has warned Californians to expect deep cuts to everything from schools to prisons.

Americans Vicky Long and John Papadakous are savoring their Caribbean vacation in Mexico. The swine flu outbreak virtually emptied the white-sand beaches of Cancun, along with its bars and hotels, meaning there is plenty of staff to pamper the couple from Baltimore.

The percentage of households that could afford to buy an entry-level home in San Diego County rose to 61 percent in the first quarter of 2009, compared to 59 percent in the previous quarter and 43 percent for the same period a year ago.

Chrysler LLC wants to eliminate 789, or about 25 percent, of its U.S. 3,200 dealerships, saying in a bankruptcy court filing Thursday that the network is antiquated and has too many stores competing with each other.